


the approaching night

by oathofsilence



Series: Thallen Fall Week 2015 [1]
Category: The Flash (TV 2014)
Genre: Alternate Universe - High School, First Kiss, M/M, Tumblr: thallenweek
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-10-27
Updated: 2015-10-27
Packaged: 2018-04-28 08:26:11
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,491
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5085457
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/oathofsilence/pseuds/oathofsilence
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>When Barry is invited to a party and out of all people Eddie 'pretty boy' Thawne starts hanging out with him, his world takes a turn for the better.</p>
            </blockquote>





	the approaching night

**Author's Note:**

> Part of the Thallen Fall Week 2015.  
> Prompt 1 (October 26th): Back to School (High School AU)  
> Enjoy!

“Would you stop fidgeting?”, Iris scolded Barry and lightly slapped his hand that kept playing with the sleeve of his sweatshirt. “You'll be fine.”

“Alright, alright”, Barry replied in an exasperated tone, since this must have been the seventh time this evening Iris has pointed this out to him.

It was just – Barry wasn't the most sociable person around. He tried to be, but not an awful lot of people clicked with him, the dorky science kid. Additionally some people knew the story (or some variation of it) with his murdered mother and his imprisoned father, which immediately earned him the eternal “weirdo” stamp from his more judgmental schoolmates. Mostly, people thought he was alright, he guessed – polite and smiling a lot – but also didn't go out of their way to befriend him or anything.

And now here he sat, having been invited to some party by people he didn't even really know (probably because they had invited Iris and didn't want to seem rude, he mused), constantly tugging at his sleeve. Not a lot of people had arrived yet and a lot of the small crowd he barely even knew the names of. One of his good friends, Cisco, arrived shortly after him and Iris, having thrown on a blazer over one of his graphic tees for the special occasion. It suited him really well. Right now, he was busy socializing in a way Barry admired – he could make most people laugh and his personality in general was just very disarming.

Felicity was here too, her long blonde hair put up in a bun, talking to someone on the phone with an annoyed expression. Barry and her got along really well, both being enthusiastic science geeks that sometimes made their friends just shake their heads.

It took about an hour and a half after the official start of the party for most guests to arrive and there to actually be some kind of celebratory atmosphere.

Cups filled with “juice” were passed around, music was played, people were dancing and laughing. Barry tried his best to relax, but if he wasn't talking to one of his friends it was as if his whole body just froze. Except for his hands, that _wouldn't fucking stop fidgeting_ with whatever was in reach.

Barry had been busy with leaning against a wall and staring into his cup for a couple of minutes, when he noticed someone walking up to him. If possible, his body tensed up even more. _Oh no._

“Hey, Allen!”

… _.ohhh no._

He looked up, and what he saw was a pair of blue eyes he knew embarrassingly well. Plus _that_ smile that could light up the whole room.

“Hey, Eddie.” Barry tried to smile, but he was so jittery it felt as if the corners of his mouth were trying to mimic earthquakes.

“I'm really glad to see you here! We haven't had much chance to talk before.”

Eddie Thawne wanted to... talk to him? Just like that? Well, Barry knew Eddie was nice, but that he would be interested in someone like Barry, that's just wild.

Not _that_ kind of interested, obviously.

“Yeah, right, uh, maybe we could... do that tonight?”

“Definetly!” Eddie looked around for a second. “Uh, I could get us some more drinks and we could find a place to sit and chat, if you'd like?”

Barry couldn't do anything but nod. Eddie beamed at him, took Barry's cup and disappeared. Was this happening? Did the guy he'd been having some embarrassing crush on from far away just make an effort to hang out with him and get to know him better? Barry thought he might start feeling dizzy if he thought about this intensively. And before he could even start, Eddie had returned with two full plastic cups. The famous red ones. Barry took one.

“Thanks.” Eddie just smiled at him brightly.

“Uh, if you're not too cold, we could sit outside for a bit? It's quite loud in here after all.”

Barry couldn't help but chuckle. “Wow, so you're really going through with this whole deal of getting to know me?”

Eddie grinned and bowed his head a little. “Of course. I'm a man of my word.”

 

They went to sit on some stone steps that led to the backyard of the house. It was pleasantly cold out, not too bad but still cold enough for it to be enjoyable to cuddle up next to someone. Which Barry obviously didn't think about at all.

If Barry hadn't been sixteen he'd tell himself to stop thinking like a sappy teenager, but that was exactly what he was, so he might as well leave it be.

Barry passed his cup from his left to his right hand and back again and so on. At least he wasn't exactly fidgeting. He didn't think he could get any more nervous than he had been before, but now he was sat next to Eddie Thawne, almost close enough to be able to feel his body heat and _Jesus Christ, why was this happening._

“Strange how we've never really talked before.”

“You think?”

“Yeah, I mean, Iris and I get along pretty well. And you and Iris are, like, inseparable. Can't believe we've never had a proper one-on-one.”

“Well, yeah, that's true.” Barry grinned. “But now here we are.”

“Here we are.”

They both turned to look at each other, and if Barry wasn't imagining things, Eddie seemed just as nervous as he felt. Maybe they looked into each other's eyes for a bit longer than necessary. Eddie huffed out a small, shaky laugh as he turned to look at the plastic cup in his hands again.

“I'm sorry, I'm... not good at this.” He let out that tiny chuckle again.

“At what?”

It took Eddie a while to reply. Barry didn't know where to look; he risked looking at Eddie, who was biting his lip. He lightly drummed against the cup with his fingertips.

“Eddie?”

This was making Barry nervous. Again. God damn it. But it was a good kind of nervous. Thrilling, in some way.

“I'll just... go right out and say it.”

Barry forced himself to properly look at Eddie now, who took a deep breath.

“Um. I hope this doesn't weird you out. I just- I'm interested in you. I like you. You're funny and smart and I like your smile and I, god, I don't know why I'm talking so much right now. Maybe I should let the punch be punch for now.” He set down his cup in order to be doing something other than talking himself into trouble.

Barry's face lit up. His crush was... _mutual_? These things happened? That was impossible. And then, something inside of Barry just clicked. Somehow, he decided to go 'fuck it'. He scooped closer Eddie, lighty cupping his averted cheek and pressing a light kiss onto the other.

His heartbeat skyrocketed and it was the most wonderful feeling.

Eddies right hand reached up to take Barry's. He turned his head slightly and looked Barry in the eyes and if anything was the definition of someone smiling with their eyes, this was it. Eddie looked so genuinely happy it made Barry smile even more and wonder how long it would take until his cheeks would start to hurt from smiling, and then Eddie leaned in and kissed him properly.

Any tension that was left in him vanished from his body, it was as if he melted into the kiss, his whole world consisting of the soft and sweet touch of the other boy's lips, of their shared body heat; careful and unsure at first, filled with more certainty, almost arguing about who was supposed to have the upper hand as they went on.

Eventually, the pulled apart, just enough to stop the kiss, but still close enough that they might as well start kissing right away. Both of them started laughing a little.

“Here we are.”, Barry said with a whisper, voice a little hoarse.

“Here we are.”, Eddie repeated and went in for another kiss.

 

They both pulled apart when a knock on the back door they were sitting in front of gave them a fright. Was this gonna turn out awful now?

When they turned to look, they saw Oliver and Felicity grinning at them through the glass. Felicity opened the door.

“Hey, you lovebirds. Come inside, we're gonna play some twister!”

Barry nodded. “Sure thing, be right there.”

Oliver sighed. “Finally you two got that over with. It was getting annoying watching you both stare at each other when you thought no one was looking.”

Felicity elbowed him in the ribs.

Eddie stood up from the stairs. “Well, I guess he's kinda right.” He held out his hand to help Barry up and as they walked inside the house again, they didn't stop holding hands until they came into the living room where the others sat.

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you so much for reading!  
> Originally this fic was inspired by a "imagine your OTP playing twister" prompt, but you know, sometimes your characters decide they wanna get close way before you can fill that prompt. Whoops.
> 
> If you spot any typos, formatting- or grammatical errors, feel free to point them out to me.  
> Comments and kudos are highly appreciated. <3


End file.
